Bucket List: Live Like You Were Dying

A number of years ago Tim McGraw came out with his song, "Live Like You Were Dying."

Even though some may listen to the song and think it sad and depressing, when I hear it I think, "Make the most of everyday!  It's a GIFT!"  I try to never take for granted waking up to enjoy another morning.  I cherish every night falling asleep holding the hand of the love of my life.  Daily, looking into the eyes of three precious children and watching them do what kids do is a gift!  I never want to pass up the opportunity to hug one of our kids or let them play with my hair.  As I type right now, one of them is sitting on the same dining room chair with me with his head on my shoulder.  Love it!

The days pass much too quickly and at the end of this blessed life I hope to say I did the best with what I had.  My mom gave me a quote by Erma Bombeck.  I have it hanging in my office.  It reads:

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'"

Now I could get all hung up with the fact that I don't have any recognizable talent.  I can't play an instrument.  I'm not very coordinated or athletic.  I CAN'T sing!  I can't dance, unless you consider the jerking motion displayed by Elaine Benes dancing. But this "idea" of talent may not be what real talent is.

Webster defines talent as, "A natural ability or power."

Natural ability or power.  Hmmm...  Natural abilities.  I like that!  We all have some natural abilities to share with others.

One ability could be the art of exploring, experiencing and having fun. Remember...make the most of and appreciate every day?

Organizing outings seems to be a natural ability.

I'm beginning to formulate a bucket list for Southern California.  One item on the list is:

VIEW A LIVE TAPING OF TELEVISION TALK SHOW

I've been trying, without success, to get tickets to The Ellen Show.  I'll keep trying.

In the meantime, last month I received an email asking if I'd like to attend a taping of the Dr. Drew Lifechangers program.  To be honest, I thought it was junk mail.  I had never watched the Dr. Drew show and actually never heard of it.  I've seen Dr. Drew Pinsky before, but didn't know he had his own program.  I deleted the email.

This month, I received the email invitation again.  I looked into it a bit more.  It sounded interesting.  I went ahead and responded requesting four tickets.

This week two friends and I went to a taping.  It was an experience to say the least!  For the last two days since the taping, I've been thinking of how to blog what we saw and heard.  So many thoughts have swirled around my brain.

I think I'll have two more posts following with the events of the shows.  One show was about the Octomom, Nadya Suleman, and the other was about the growing number of women looking to pursue careers in prostitution apparently as a result of the economic downturn.  Needless to say, with an afternoon on those two topics we had plenty of conversation for the three hour LA traffic mess on the way home.

My brain is still swimming with thoughts.  Until the next post...